We all know the amount of data we collect continues to expand at unprecedented rates, and I agree one of the main barriers to this data is the ability to analyze it efficiently. Data analysis does take expertise, but I believe the onus to employ data scientists should be on the software and analytics vendors — not the end users.

If we make software that provides directional analytics from all of these things, creating an "if this, then that scenario," more people will be able to benefit from that data and act on it sooner: rather than waiting days, weeks or months for direction from an analyst.

And when we're looking at examples of railroad switches, oil wells and even household appliances: time is money.

The beauty of big data is we have access to historical data — from single devices to entire infrastructures — as well as real-time live data. And if information from a sensor had triggered a certain event or scenario in the past, the software measuring that sensor can rely on that historic data to recreate (or prevent) that scenario again.

Interesting article. I don't think that many of us are thinking about the cost of resources for IoT. This includes the cost of bandwidth and power as well as implementation. Right now, based on the quality of data that is coming out of many devices, it's simply not worth all of the initial and operating costs.

We've been hearing about the Internet of Things for years. But it seems as if this is going to take much longer to be a reality than many prognosticators have believed.

It'll be much worse this time. 19th Century telegraphs were able to go back to work after the event was over. 21st century CMOS will be PERMANENTLY RUINED. The machines that will be needed to build replacements will be PERMANENTLY RUINED. Much of the specs, stored in semiconductor or magnetic media will be permanently lost, as will be any electronic equipment built after the late 1960's.

I love how this much technological planning has to go into trains -- which FOLLOW A TRACK -- yet Google and others keep pushing the idea that the consumer market is totally ready for self-driving cars.

An interesting idea that I didn't explore, that I heard in a follow-up chat this week with the folks at M2Mi (thanks Manu), was about who gets access to the Internet of things data. Jim Fowler, quoted in the article, talked about this at the IW Conference -- aobut how GE only gets access to power plant data if the customer continues to see the value in sharing it. But the M2Mi folks brought up other parties who will want access -- for example, the lender who owns a piece of equipment you're leasing, to make sure you're doing the maintenance so it'll have the expected residual value at lease end. A lot to think abot there in terms of who gets access to the data beyond the simple Maker-Owner.

At Packet Dynamics we realized that the 'dark territory' or areas not covered by cellular M2M services exist not only in the U.S but also globally. Infrastructure players whether rail, pipeline, electrical transmission, etc. all need to communicate to end nodes that might never be covered by GSM/LTE. The Cloud can't just exist in the colored areas on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint's coverage maps.

We provide beyond-line-of-sight communications for M2M and cloud applications using High Frequency radio links. We went back to HF, an old school spectrum that still works, and added the latest in radio technology (waveforms, error correction, etc) to solve real world industrial problems. It's not the glamorous side of the Cloud, but for companies with equipment scattered across the fly-over states or in third world countries it does solve a major problem.

The really large IoT solutions will need the cloud to be truly effective but right now those solutions are few and far between. I can't think of many companies that cover the area that Union Pacific covers with the need to monitor many points along the way. Even companies like UPS or Fedex don't need to see the condition of every mile of road that they travel. I think some government projects could become this big but if you're looking to track trucks for a medium sized company via GPS then moving to the cloud isn't going to be as critical for success.

Insightful article, Chris. Unless you've been out to the remote areas where these pipelines and railines have been built, it's easy to underestimate just how far-flung and distant this infrastructure is -- and what it will take to develop sensors that would stay powered and in touch. But I sense the integration of data question may be equally challenging, and another reason why the IoT will work in some fields, and take much longer in others.

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.